Emergency room doctor Louis Profeta wants college students to know what happens the day after someone spends the night drinking too much.

He describes a dorm room where the smell of feces and urine fills the air and how a roommate trips over his fraternity brother, now lying dead on the floor after a night of five vodka slammers, one after another.

"Dead, waxy, with rock-still, clouded eyes ... you could never envision a stare so distant," Profeta writes on his blog. "You played pickup basketball yesterday at the campus rec center and … now, he is so still, laying among the pile of yet-to-be-washed clothes or wrapped up in a blanket on a [urine]-soaked IKEA futon delivered to him last week."

Profeta sees students come through the emergency department of Saint Vincent's Medical Center in Indianapolis too often, he said. He understands the agony parents feel when their child's life is in peril.

"We're the ones who have to tell the parents how these kids die," Profeta said.

So, he talks with groups of young people and writes about extreme drinking and drugs, describing the scene in detail and hoping they will sidestep tragedy.

"I would tell their mom and dad that they were dead, and [explain] how Mom would pull hunks of her hair out until it bled, and Dad would punch the wall, shattering a bone or two," Profeta says to young students.

"Already, Mom and Dad would be blaming [their child's friends] for getting their kid drunk or stoned to the point [vomit] bubbled up in his throat, then plugged his trachea, choking him just as surely as if they had taken their foot and crushed their child's windpipe on their own.

"They will blame you for their child's death until the day you die. Are you ready for that?"

Finally, he describes how the "frat brothers" sit along the wall in the hospital waiting room, and sob.

​Testing the limits

A person who has had too much to drink can choke or asphyxiate on his or her vomit, even while unconscious, and doesn't respond to pinching or shaking. The person's breath is slow or shallow or absent. The skin is blue, and cold or clammy, according to descriptions by the Gordie Center, a nonprofit at the University of Virginia working to prevent substance abuse.

As new freshmen are unleashed from their parents' protection at home, many test the limits of drugs and alcohol. Rites of passage are repeated each year by the uninitiated.

"So, my friends and I played beer pong tonight. Suffice to say it didn't quite go as expected," posted deutscheblake on the Reddit thread AskDocs. "The guy we all thought could handle liquor the best is now piss drunk sleeping on the floor of our house. He's had about 4 beers and the equivalent to 9 shots. My other friend and I are worried he might have alcohol poisoning. Is there something we should be looking for as a sign that he needs to go to the hospital?"

Alcohol abuse is complicated by other substances haunting America and its campuses, Profeta said.

"We are in the middle of a humongous opiate crisis," he said, "and throw in marijuana. ... So many of these kids are on antidepressants. When you combine those with alcohol, you will die. … They are doing this constantly."

And "they," Profeta said, "are not just frat boys. Young people are partying in basements, friends' houses, in high school."

Binge drinking

Nearly 17 percent of students surveyed said that the last time they partied, they had seven or more drinks, according to the Spring 2017 National College Health Assessment, which polls college students randomly each semester about their health behaviors.

Those amounts are well above the "binge drinking" of four or more standard drinks per occasion for women, and five or more standard drinks per occasion for men, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Within the past 12 months, college students also reported using antidepressants, erectile dysfunction drugs, painkillers, sedatives and stimulants that were not prescribed to them, and 12.5 percent of the students surveyed said they had used one or more of these drugs together.

"They use Viagra," Profeta said, a drug typically prescribed to older men for erectile dysfunction. "They don't think they need it — it's all about the adrenaline rush — about something new, about something different, either escaping or doing something that's frowned on, it's all about walking the edge, walking the tightrope."

And fueled by the same thrill of other extreme experiences, sometimes students shimmy too close to the edge.

Adults should not be afraid to speak up.

"Sometimes things are not that complex," Profeta said. "Sometimes we have to say, 'Stop this. Things are not right.' You don't have to redefine society. We don't have to change what constitutes masculinity and femininity. That is wrong. Just stop. … just stop."

Hungry for facts

And while many younger people seem to screech toward a dangerous independence out of arm's reach of their elders, some are seeking advice similar to Profeta's.

"There should be a drug-ed class like sex-ed, where they teach you how not to overdose or get alcohol poisoning and stuff," wrote RumpyStiltz_56 on the Reddit thread Shower Thoughts.

"There needs to be a class where you learn about a safe-use system for drugs and alcohol," wrote Justanothermolifer, who also said the fact of the matter is that drugs and alcohol will be involved in a lot of students' lives in one way or another.

"I do not think this is a problem with universities or education," Profeta said. "I'm not sure it is a problem with parents. There is a lot of blame to go around everywhere. It's up to us to navigate those threats."

Ruth Chane, a computer science major from Ethiopia, writes about her experiences settling into student life at Whitman College in the U.S. state of Washington.

"The community at Whitman College made sure I felt welcomed even before I stepped foot on campus," she says.

Read her essay here.

In The Student Life, the student newspaper for the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five liberal art colleges and two graduate schools in Claremont, California, student Rochelle Lu writes about readjusting to her Shanghai home after spending a semester in the United States.

Read the full story here.

Cedarville University in the U.S. state of Ohio says it’s got more than 140 international students representing 44 countries.

Here, the school interviews Jonathan Sutton, director of international student services. He talks about his job and the opportunities for international students on campus.

Read the full article here.

Morehouse College, a private, historically Black liberal arts college in the U.S. state of Georgia, offers a guide for international students interested in attending the school.

Among the tips to apply and thrive at Morehouse:

• Take advantage of the school’s orientation program
• Turn to the school’s Center for Academic Success for tutoring, support and more
• Immerse yourself in campus life via clubs and societies

Read the full article here.

WASHINGTON — 

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.